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New Zealand still the best place to do business

New Zealand exemplifies a business-friendly environment, according to World Bank, which ranked the country first for three years running in its annual Doing Business report.

The report found that the country is an excellent place to start a business, holding the lowest number of procedures required, as well as the shortest time to get started.

The report notes that New Zealand has made starting a business less expensive over the past year by reducing fees for name search and company incorporation.

“Within the ten topics used to determine New Zealand’s score, the report showed improved sub-scores this year for ease of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity and registering property,” New Zealand finance minister Grant Robertson said.

“It’s important that our regulatory settings are right. It’s also important for Governments to support businesses to grow.”

Robertson added that the government has announced a $1 billion tax incentive for businesses engaging in R&D, as well as support for business with the costs of taking on apprentices, and a series of reforms to support small and medium enterprises.

The report compares regulations across 190 countries which affect 11 areas of the life-cycle of a business, from starting a business to resolving insolvency, using data current as of May 1 2018.

According to the report, since its launch in 2003, it has inspired more than 3500 reforms across regulation, lowering the world-wide average time to start a business to 20 days.

InsideRetail.co.nz is New Zealand's leading authority on retail industry news and trends. Throughout the day we publish retail news, intelligence, and analysis, facilitating and informing the retail industry in New Zealand, Asia, and beyond.
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